Urban Survival - The Goal is not Literally Surviving, it's Surviving with Quality

One of our buddies reported having a recent conversation with a older gent the other night. They were discussing Urban Survival versus Wilderness Survival, the main difference being having a permanent shelter, or not. Yes, you could be surviving in a remote part of the country in a log cabin or barn and that would be different from literally Wilderness Survival. By Wilderness Survival, we mean bare bones survival,…procuring all your foods from animals or edible plants, living in a dug out or lean to, having no survival aids but want you can carry with you.

This may be survival but it certainly is literally survival and not decent living – although the first rule IS to stay alive. The whole reason to prepare with Survival Food, Material, Gear and Equipment, not to mention a re-location or Bug Out Plan to a safer location, is to ensure that we can maintain life under some level of quality.

Almost all Urban Locations will require a Bug Out plan to a safe location, as Urban locations are dependant upon city/county water supplies which will dry up once the infrastructure collapses. Water is your number one concern. However you won’t be able to drink the water that you stockpile if you can defend yourself,…….this takes a rifle,…nor if you starve to death. Long term stay in Urban locations would require a teamwork approach and a water supply – community pond or lake, several swimming pools, etc. This would eventually dry up and again we’re looking at a re-location to a Safe Location.

Urban locations because of the density of structures, lack of usable open land for growing food and bigger population will be problematic for Urban based Survival. You’ll have a hard time seeing threats coming unless your neighborhood is organized (a la “Lights Out”) as well as feeding all of the unprepared families. “What are you gonna do when the neighbor comes over begging for food for his children?” We think personalities, standards of conduct, work ethic, maybe even religious beliefs will be so diverse that long term Urban Survival will be simply too difficult to maintain in a an Urban environment.

There is the chance of a large segment of the population in your Urban environment would move on, leaving a smaller percentage of the population and therefore a better chance of organization for the better good of all. This may well open other resources such as water,……think water heaters, swimming pools and polluted sources of water that you can purify. Even then unless you have a full time water source and ability to grow food for yourself, and, maintain security this will be iffy.

So back to the conversation between my buddy and the older guy. They discuss the older gent’s plan to move to an unpopulated stretch of river were he would have a water source and where he could hunt and fish for food. This will rapidly turn into literal survival scenario,…..scratching an existence out of nothing, as opposed to decent living. A camper, six months or more of stored food, seeds and a small group of alike minded and supplied people would make this much more viable.

This all boils down to preparation. Everybody be safe and prepare well.